Trump on polls: ‘There’s something phony’

While laying into the mainstream media on Tuesday for its coverage of his campaign, Donald Trump paid special attention to CNN and “phony” polls showing him losing to Hillary Clinton.

The cable network released its latest poll conducted by ORC International on Monday, with Clinton holding a 9-point lead in a head-to-head matchup with the Republican nominee after the Democratic National Convention last week.

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Trump, speaking at a campaign event in Ashburn, Virginia, noted that a recent Los Angeles Times/USC poll showed him ahead of Clinton. That poll, an online panel survey conducted between last Tuesday and Monday, had Trump up 2 points.

“I see one from CNN where we’re down,” Trump said, in reference to the CNN/ORC poll, in which he trails Clinton by 8 points when third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are included.

“I think these polls — I don’t know — there’s something about these polls, there’s something phony,” Trump, said, before launching into more criticism of the network which on Monday he called Clinton’s “press shop.”

Trump, who in late June tweeted that he no longer watched CNN, told the crowd that he indeed watches the network, adding, “They are so negative, all day long.”

“It’s all Trump, all day long, and you know what?” Trump said. “Their ratings are going down and their ratings are gonna start to go down big because I don’t do interviews for them.”